Manchester University Press
10 Writing Sugar in the Blood
Abstract
Andrea Stuart's Sugar in the Blood (2012) tells the story of her transatlantic family across eight generations. In this essay she reflects on the experience of writing that personal history, a chronicle that documents the evolution of the plantation complex in microcosm. Her ancestors, seventeenth century settlers, first used white indentured labour and then, as they became increasingly enmeshed in the burgeoning sugar industry, converted to the exploitation of enslaved African labour. For centuries the lives of the family centred on the plantation and the production of sugar. Her intention was to demonstrate in fictional form how colonial settlement, the rise of the sugar industry, the slave trade and emancipation shaped the lives of these individuals. The essay considers the relation between fiction and other forms of history writing and argues for the centrality of the fictional imagination in considerations of the legacies of slavery.
Abstract
Andrea Stuart's Sugar in the Blood (2012) tells the story of her transatlantic family across eight generations. In this essay she reflects on the experience of writing that personal history, a chronicle that documents the evolution of the plantation complex in microcosm. Her ancestors, seventeenth century settlers, first used white indentured labour and then, as they became increasingly enmeshed in the burgeoning sugar industry, converted to the exploitation of enslaved African labour. For centuries the lives of the family centred on the plantation and the production of sugar. Her intention was to demonstrate in fictional form how colonial settlement, the rise of the sugar industry, the slave trade and emancipation shaped the lives of these individuals. The essay considers the relation between fiction and other forms of history writing and argues for the centrality of the fictional imagination in considerations of the legacies of slavery.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of tables vii
- A note on the front cover viii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Preface xiii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I Formations of capital: beyond ‘merchants and planters’
- 1 The scope of accumulation and the reach of moral perception 19
- 2 Slavery, the slave trade and economic growth 36
- 3 Slavery and Welsh industry before and after emancipation 60
-
Slavery and Welsh industry before and after emancipation
- 4 From slavery to indenture 77
- 5 Re-examining the labour matrix in the British Caribbean 1750 to 1850 98
- 6 After emancipation 113
-
Part III The imperial state
- 7 Imperial complicity 131
- 8 Concepts of liberty 149
-
Part IV Public histories, family histories
- 9 Family history 175
- 10 Writing Sugar in the Blood 184
- 11 Legacy and lineage 193
-
Part V Reparations, restitution and the historian
- 12 The Mauritius Truth and Justice Commission 207
- 13 Jamaica and the debate over reparation for slavery 223
- Index 251
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of tables vii
- A note on the front cover viii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Preface xiii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I Formations of capital: beyond ‘merchants and planters’
- 1 The scope of accumulation and the reach of moral perception 19
- 2 Slavery, the slave trade and economic growth 36
- 3 Slavery and Welsh industry before and after emancipation 60
-
Slavery and Welsh industry before and after emancipation
- 4 From slavery to indenture 77
- 5 Re-examining the labour matrix in the British Caribbean 1750 to 1850 98
- 6 After emancipation 113
-
Part III The imperial state
- 7 Imperial complicity 131
- 8 Concepts of liberty 149
-
Part IV Public histories, family histories
- 9 Family history 175
- 10 Writing Sugar in the Blood 184
- 11 Legacy and lineage 193
-
Part V Reparations, restitution and the historian
- 12 The Mauritius Truth and Justice Commission 207
- 13 Jamaica and the debate over reparation for slavery 223
- Index 251
